An African Revolution and its Foot Soldiers: Femininity, Race, Power, and Postcolonial Trajectories in Ngugi and Mugo’s The Trial of Dedan Kimathi
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Abstract
The exploitation of African countries by colonial powers while denying their indigenous populations access to their own human and natural resources incurs a revolution. This essay focuses on the Kenyan revolution otherwise known as the Mau Mau uprising, but with particular attention to the exceptional contributions of its women who acting as foot-soldiers of the revolution have been able to undermine imperialist strategies deployed to break their male counterparts into submission. It highlights how women transcend notions of traditional femininity to collapse the powers of the colonialists by decentring it through their active participation in the war of liberation, as well as their commitment to ensure future generations are not left out of the struggle. The essay also explores the praxis of postcolonial and feminist criticism to call attention to Ngugi and Mugo’s historical response to Western imperialism in The Trial of Dedan Kimathi (1976), by interrogating the effect of exploitative capitalism and the resilience of the human spirit, especially that of women in Kenyan’s struggle for mental emancipation and socioeconomic independence.
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